Tag Archives: lyrics

Show coincides with Women’s History Month

Soprano Amy Jarman’s upcoming recital features adaptations of texts written by an international roster of women spanning 200 years. “Women’s Words,” which also features pianist Jerome Reed, seems tailor-made for National Women’s History Month.

The two music professors perform together regularly. This time they stumbled onto the theme of women writers and each made a list — a long list, according to Reed — of pieces they were interested in performing, some new to their repertoire, others favorites.

“One of the things that drew me to a lot of this is that these texts are not necessarily texts that would have had to be written by women, but they certainly do emphasize a lot of the things that I think women writers write really beautifully about,” Jarman said. “Love, loss, anticipation, desire.”

Two pieces by Schubert were selected first and open the program. “Suleika, Op. 14” and “Suleikas zweiter Gesang, Op. 31” were originally attributed to German poet Goethe but were later found to have been written by Marianne von Willemer (1784-1860). She is a woman “with whom Goethe probably had a brief affair with but had a long correspondence with in his lifetime,” Jarman said.

Next, Jarman chose a setting of excerpts from Anne Frank’s diary set to music by José Bowen.

Reed suggested Rachmaninoff, whose piano music he loves, so “How Fair This Spot!” and two other poems by Russian poet Glafira Galina (1873-1942) went onto the list.

Lee Hoiby’s setting of Emily Dickinson’s “The Shining Place,” which closes the program, is a favorite for Jarman and a treat for Reed as well.

“I love playing Lee Hoiby things because he was also a really fabulous pianist and the piano parts just fit really well, they’re really fun to play,” Reed said.

In planning “Women’s Words,” Jarman and Reed aimed for balance in terms of segment length and range of composers, authors and times. They didn’t want the programto feature only American poets and composers nor to be restricted to one type of music.

“You want something that’s meaty, that people are really going to think about,” Jarman said. “Then you want something a little lighter, sort of like having sorbet between courses in an elaborate meal.”

Jarman and Reed also managed to find a mix of music and texts that presents a wide range of experiences while sharing subtle ties. For example, two versions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee?” open the second half of the program. One, by Norman dello Joio, was performed at Reed’s wedding. In “Women’s Words,” it’ll be followed by a version composed by Libby Larsen.

“The thing that’s really fascinating about that is the last note of the Libby Larsen is also the first note of the Norman dello Joio, so they hook together very well,” Reed said.